March 2024 Goal

 This is Lucy. 

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses.

Lucy is relaxing laying in the sun

on the heated floor in the new SonRoom at the Farm. 

She is tired of relaxing and being in time out. 

So . . . 

 We are going to play together this month.

Yes. For the whole month. 

The Chookshed Challenge # is 4 and that is Lucy's number. 

A couple of cortizone shots in my hands last week

and I am ready to play also. 

Let's see how far we get. 

It is only 31 days

in a row. 

Can we play everyday?

 We shall see. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Doing

Last week my To-Do Tuesday quilting list included: 

1.  Sew something. yes 
2.  for at least 15 Minutes a Day. almost 
3.  Don't touch Lucy this week. caved and picked her up not once but twice for mindless stitching. 

My Other To-Do Tuesday list includes:

1. Hot tub. yup 3 X
2. Laundry. all caught up. My Sweetie washed the bedsheets and hung them outside to dry on a warm (+8C) sunny breezy day. 
3. Clear those 2 eight foot tables - again. And did it yet again. 
4. Move the glass top table. I cannot reach the small design wall that sits on it and I want to play. Elly was home sick from school one day so she helped me move the tables. Now I can reach.
5. Put a lot of stuff away. Then I pulled out even more.
6. Write at least 3 times this week. I got a new book to guide my writing. Yes and feel pretty good about where I am.
7.  Massage Wed. My regular girl took a leave of absence to go out west to spend time with her aging (mid 90's) parents and she is not coming back. I am so sad. I miss her. I had yet another new girl. She was ok. Just not my regular one. 
8. Prep for Women's Small Group Sat. Done and it was amazing. 

So about those two 8 foot tables I work on. I wrote out a list of all the things I have been working on this past week. 

No wonder I have so much spread out all over them. But I do need all that space to work on my Dust Off an Old Book project for March 6. 

My To-Do Tuesday list for this week is a bit tidier:

1. Tidy off the tables. 
   
   
   
2. Spread out the DOAB project and make a plan to complete this ufo from 2007. 
3. Take pictures along the way to show some progress.
4. Make some progress to show in the pictures.
5. Begin to write up a blog post about the progress. 
6. Don't give away what the thing will look like. 
7. Be sneaky. 
8. Stop putting Lucy in timeout. She did not do anything worth that kind of treatment. 
9. Stop spending so much time playing with Lucy. Other projects are calling my name. 
10. Enjoy the new found freedom in my writing. More on that another day. 
11. It is Family Day weekend and the girls and their dad are going to Ottawa. That leaves us home alone. Nice. Hot tub time. Maybe the boys will come over for a sleepover. Maybe not.

blessings,

Chris

Playing With Bright Jane

 

 I pulled out all the Bright Jane project boxes. There were 4. On the very top is one with bits of pre-cut background fabrics in it. There is also one with DJ2 applique stuff but I will have to look for that.

I started this Sept 2014 just after I completed my first Dear Jane Quilt. I was going to do it in a year. Eventually, I started working in the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I printed off foundation patterns and chose fabrics and put them all in nicely organized zip-lock bags and then file folders. And there they have sat for a very long time. I bought new solid coloured bedsheets recently and they need a colourful quilt to lay on top. 

 

Then did a count of the completed blocks by putting them up on the small design wall one colour at a time.

I still need 4 blues. Working on that.

Feb is pink month. I have 8 more blocks that have been prepped for Foundation Piecing for several years. 

Red has 10 complete and 2 in process. That amazing circle of geese was foundation pieced using a stay in fusible but is very stiff to work with that way. I have an idea how to finish it. Come back on red month.

For some reason, I thought I had all 20 green blocks done. I see one missing. I will  not fret about that until next green month.

 And purple. For some reason purple kept getting missed. There will be 25 of these beauties eventually. I long since had stopped making the Dear Jane blocks as I had already made the entire thing in reproduction fabrics. Finished that more than 8 years ago and it is still not quilted. One of these days. But it is on the 23 ufos list. 

I have been making a variety of patterns that can be made using just one colour. 

Is it pronounced 

or (an) ge

or 

or (on) ge? 

Guess it depends if  you live in Ontario or Quebec. 

Either way, I still have 6 blocks to make. No. 7 blocks. That top left one belongs in the yellow collection. 

Still need to make 7 more yellow blocks. 

I am using a variety of bright fabrics I bought just for this quilt. I am not so fond of the bright colours. That is one reason this project has languished so long in project boxes.

And there is aqua. What can I say? These are all done. I like them. This is my project for the RSC this year. I only have 59 blocks to go. I think. If my math is correct. 

My To-Do Tuesday quilting list includes: 

1.  Sew something.
2.  for at least 15 Minutes a Day.
3.  Don't touch Lucy this week. 

My Other To-Do Tuesday list includes:

1. Hot tub.
2. Laundry.
3. Clear those 2 eight foot tables - again.
4. Move the glass top table. I cannot reach the small design wall that sits on it and I want to play.
5. Put a lot of stuff away.
6. Write at least 3 times this week. I got a new book to guide my writing. 
7.  Massage Wed.
8. Prep for Women's Small Group Sat.

My February OMG goal is to complete something. 

linking with Design Wall Monday

Blessings,

Chris

Tuesday To-Do List

 I appreciate this group where I can ramble on about my dreams and goals and plans. Even the ones I actually follow through on. I completed all the things on my last 2 to-do lists and feel pretty good about that. This week's list has a few more things on it.

1. The new EPP papers from Paper Pieces arrived so I can play with them by glue basting the pile of already cut white hexies for the sashing and corner units for Lucy. I also got three shapes for Winderemere. FedEx came to the door twice and I paid the import tax. 
2. Stitch together one Lucy block at the Q@F online meeting Sat morning. I did not touch her for a whole week. I am so proud of my self control. 
3. Write 3 times this week. This includes blog writing, journaling, and book writing as well as responding to comments and writing emails. 
4. Clear my tables of their clutter. Where does it all come from? 
5. Bright Jane. The RSC colour for January is dark blue. I have 5 blue blocks to make. These have been prepped and ready to go for several years. It's only 5 little 4 1/2 inch blocks. They will be foundation pieced.
6. Stitch for 15 minutes at least 6 times this week. That seems to be the pace I am doing right now. Need to have some wiggle room. 
7. Continue to ignore the Wedding Quilt. I succeeded this past week. Now to keep the momentum. 
8. Resist the temptation to join in the SAHRR. I put it on my 2023 calendar a year ago. But how can I put time into something new when I have so many other things I want to do?  Not going to go there in my thoughts. 

Need a picture. My next Lucy block. 

This one is a bit fuzzy but then, so are my eyes these days. I went for a pre-op appointment with the eye surgeon today getting ready for cataract surgery. I have been on this pursuit for nearly a year and will have to wait a bit yet. They will not do the procedure until after I get back from Australia in April since I will not be allowed to fly for 2-3 months after wards. I got that memo. But not being able to drive for 2-4 weeks after each eye? How can I not drive? I have been driving since I was 12. Okay. I waited until I was licensed to drive on the road. I have kept the entire month of May clear of commitments. I may have to forgo daily stitching. Sigh. 

No problem. I will just get a head of the game with my projects. Is that even possible? to get ahead? By this fly by the seat of her pants last minute girl? But then, I do have my 2023 calendar all marked up with exciting adventures for the coming year. I have learned to do this in pencil. 

Blessings,

Chris

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To-Do Tuesday in January 2023

 

1. Charge the camera batteries so I can take pictures of my quilt progress. Yes once I found the charger thingy.
2. Remember to take pictures. YES! I did take pictures! 
3. Get the mouse and keyboard exchanged at Staples. Stupid thing decided to work again. Baffling. But I bought 2 new shirts while in town. 
4. Set my January OMG goal. It needs to be simple. I have a lot going on this month. Thought I would hold myself accountable and set completing this to-do list as my OMG. 
5. Organize my new 2023 Desk Calendar for January so I can see at a glance all that I have going on this month. When I pulled it out and put it on my desk, I saw that I had already done some preliminary organizing with appointments, and small group commitments. 
6.  Clear the big work tables in the quilt room to get ready to be busy. Ongoing task.
7. Put away all the pretty fabrics I pulled out to fussy cut a few more Lucy blocks. I could show pictures, but my camera battery is being charged. I pulled out a lot more first and found some that still needed to be pre-washed. 
8. Stitch for 15 Minutes a Day. This includes hand stitching, machine sewing, cutting, gluing prep work, ironing, unstitching. Yes. I do some of that occasionally. 6/7
9. Meeting with my local quilting friends on messenger this Sat afternoon so need to have the Lucy one inch squares, papers and glue sticks ready for a marathon. We  met in the morning since my other meeting got changed. I cut our papers for foundation piecing some Wedding Quilt blocks. 
10. Complete the 3 Palm Leaf blocks for the Wedding Quilt. I stopped ignoring it. Working on them. 
11. Locate the Di Ford-Hall fabrics and see what I have on hand to possibly consider maybe starting Windermere in the next year or two. I ordered EPP papers when I ordered more Lucy papers. Shipping was outrageous. What was I thinking? I found that I had the 1/2 inch hexie dies from Accuquilt. I found some more fun fabrics for fussy cutting, But that was what Di's contribution to the quilt world - fabric for fussy cutting and projects to use them in and instructions for how to use the fabrics. And then I get a call from FedEx requesting I prepay $25 to them so they can deliver this parcel that I paid that outrageous shipping to. Last parcel came through USPS with no extra charges. I never order from companies that ship internationally with UPS because they always demand extra for brokerage fees. and import taxes. 
12. Play with some of the 23 ufos. This is where my organizing started to take over my fun time, so I think I will report what I played with and progress, if any. with pictures. I don't have to revisit them all this week now do I? The battery should soon be charged. The battery did get charged and I did take some pictures. I did play with the Morrell. 
    
    
    I cut out and baste lots of 3/4 inch hexies for a Grandmother's Garden Block. Just one. I will EPP those things together then hand applique it onto a background square. 

One of the other things I want to do is to get some new regular routines going. I came across a list (are you surprised) that I came across years ago about being successful. 

1. Choose your attitude every day. 

2. Do the most important things first thing in the morning.

3. Do not check emails until afternoon. 

I forget the others. 

Nearly 2 years ago, I started writing morning Pages every day when I first got up. My reward, was a focused mind and a completed doctorate after 9 years of feast and famine work on it. Then I just sort of fell off the wagon. Covid did not leave us isolated. No way. We became the hub for others who were struggling with the isolation. And it continues. We love having family and friends come and go. It has been part of the ministry God has called us to. And we have a big old farmhouse with lots of rooms. I continued to write my Pages, but they are more like a journal now and that is the way I want it to be. I stopped writing for December. It was good. I joined with a group of writers internationally back in the fall. We get together daily at 10:30 my time. I will get back to that this week. I plan to join them at least 3 times each week. I want my writing to become focused rather than all over the place. I have been puttering with my fabrics, projects, writing, reading. But it is time to get some work done. Now I am writing again and have some fresh perspectives. 

Another routine I started last fall was not going downstairs until nearly noon each day. How can you get away with that you may wonder? I have a tea kettle up here and a bathroom with water. I often brought up a banana or something to eat in case I wanted to take an Advil. Mustn't take that on an empty stomach. Ok. I usually have a tin of biscuits here also. The thing is, I have my hot drink with my Pages and reading. I am retired and do not have to go places I do not want to. Health issues kept me off balance for the past few months with appointments, covid, surgery, more appointments, another bout with a virus and more appointments this month. 

 My reward has been some weight loss and a less stressed me. I kind of like me now-a-days. So does my Sweetie. I seldom do the cooking and grocery shopping, unless I have an appointment and pop in to pick up a few things. 

The thing is, once I go downstairs, I get distracted and it is game over for me. I check emails. I read blogs. I wash dishes. I may not cook much, but the dishes are my responsibility. Each person in this house is responsible for their own laundry. Even my Sweetie. Now I am rambling. I like to ramble. 

So a new routine I am going to try to implement is to shut the computer off earlier. I had a taste of that over Christmas when the wifi never got up here.  But then, I get comments on my blog posts and I need to be more diligent in responding in a timely fashion. In other words, as soon as I first read them. If I take time to think about what to write, I usually forget to go back. There are some boggers I have great conversations with. Others just a comment of thankyou. I am meeting up with some in Australia in April. So excited! 

And facebook. That is where I keep in touch with family and my writing groups. I meet with a writing accountability partner every week. We took a break and will resume this week. But now for me to get real with my weekly goals and follow through. 

My To-Do list for this week is short and simple:

1. Celebrate David's 7th birthday. He requested that we go to the Mandarin Buffet Chinese Restaurant like Mommy did, and Gramma did and Ava did for their birthdays. This will be a sleepover. Not at the restaurant. At David's house.
2. Prepare for the Hearing God Small Group starting Sat afternoon. We meet here at the Farm. I have the workbooks and the cleaning lady will be here Thurs to work her magic. 
3. Do not touch Lucy this week. She is already put away out of sight. 
4. Write 3 times this week. This blog post is #1. 

Linking with Carol  at To Do Tuesday. 

Blessings,

Chris

First To-Do List for 2023

All I can say is, it's a good thing I have a sense of humour and paid the extra for the warranty for my newly replaced keyboard and mouse. How is a girl supposed to play games and scroll and copy and paste without a mouse??? But, good thing I have a touch screen. I am so spoiled. 

I started an elaborate to-do list for the first 6 months of this new year, but I guess I should just do it week by week. The kids do not go back to school until Jan 9 so we still have a whole week of holidays and the grandkids are away doing wintery things elsewhere. The major blizzard that crippled our part of the world over Christmas has melted into mushy puddles and I think I can go out and plant a few more tulip bulbs. Yup. I can do that in January. 

My first to-do list of 2023:

1. Charge the camera batteries so I can take pictures of my quilt progress.
2. Remember to take pictures.
3. Get the mouse and keyboard exchanged at Staples.
4. Set my January OMG goal. It needs to be simple. I have a lot going on this month.
5. Organize my new 2023 Desk Calendar for January so I can see at a glance all that I have going on this month. 
6.  Clear the big work tables in the quilt room to get ready to be busy.
7. Put away all the pretty fabrics I pulled out to fussy cut a few more Lucy blocks. I could show pictures, but my camera battery is being charged. 
8. Stitch for 15 Minutes a Day. This includes hand stitching, machine sewing, cutting, gluing prep work, ironing, unstitching. Yes. I do some of that occasionally. 
9. Meeting with my local quilting friends on messenger this Sat afternoon so need to have the Lucy one inch squares, papers and glue sticks ready for a marathon.
10. Complete the 3 Palm Leaf blocks for the Wedding Quilt. I stopped ignoring it. 
11. Locate the Di Ford-Hall fabrics and see what I have on hand to possibly consider maybe starting Windermere in the next year or two. I ordered EPP papers when I ordered more Lucy papers. Shipping was outrageous.  
12. Play with some of the 23 ufos. This is where my organizing started to take over my fun time, so I think I will report what I played with and progress, if any. with pictures. I don't have to revisit them all this week now do I? The battery should soon be charged. 

I have decided that I need to get some routines established instead of being all over the place. I have lists of what that could look like also. I think my OMG goal for the month should be to complete this week's to-do list. That should keep me out of trouble for a few days. 

blessings,

Chris

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To-Do Tuesday

 Last week's list:

• ALL the prep work for a turkey dinner for 15-20 people. With head colds and double shifts, we ended up with 10. Let the left-over eating begin! Well, we did that already.
• Shopping for some of that dinner. I forgot the cornstarch. 
• Not whining about the work it takes to do this. I did not whine. Neither did I do a lot of housework. That is what the cleaning lady does.
• I have a cleaning lady coming in Thurs to do the cleaning so I do not have to do it. Canceled her because one of the girls got sent home from school with a positive covid in her class. She ended up going to mom's for the weekend and miss the dinner but not the leftovers.
• Make sure the clean-up gets done after the party. I just went into the other room and visited with those who had come early and helped with preparations. 
• No stress here since the guests usually roll up their sleeves and clear away everything and wash up the dishes. 
• I could use paper plates like we did for the anniversary. I bought Christmas paper plates but forgot to check to see if we still had plastic forks. Nada. We used stainless.
• Print off all the rest of the invoices in my inbox for the bookkeeper.  We are doing taxes after Christmas. Nope. Not one.
• Remember to do a blog post every day. Done.
• I am scheduling posts so should have that under control. Am writing them up daily now.
• Virtual Writing Retreat Friday before the dinner. I could write up blog posts since I can write on whichever project I want. I did not log in but read another Elm Creek Novel.
• Finish cutting out the rest of the fabrics for the Macaron Mystery. I cut out the focus fabric squares and put everything away for now to make room for people. 
• Do 15 minutes of stitching each day. You know that is not likely. I did manage this twice.

This weeks list:

1. Daily blog posts
2. Morning Pages
3. Print off invoices
4. Pay CPP and WSIB
5. Cut more pieces for the Macaron Mystery. 
6. Stitch 15 Minutes a day.
7. Make turkey soup. 
8. Buy some more vegetables for the soup. 
9. Freeze the extra soup. 
10. Get a pedicure. Made an appointment for tomorrow. 
11. Attend the boys' Christmas presentation.
12. Sleepover at the boys' house. 

That should be enough accountability for this week. I do meet with two accountability partners every Wed for my online writing group. My goal, for now, is daily blog posts.  

October 2021 OMG Goal

 My OMG goal for October will be to Quilt for 15 minutes almost every day. I have to leave a bit of leeway. This way I can work on several projects at a time without the pressure to actually complete any specific one. I only missed 2 days from Jan-Apr, then I fell off the wagon for May-Aug. Time to get back in the game. Included will be actual hand stitching, machine sewing and quilting, block prepping, pressing, putting blocks on the wall, printing patterns, 

Some of the things I want to work on.

50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella. I have 6 foundation blocks prepped and 9 applique blocks half done. There seems to be no rush since we postponed the anniversary celebration until next year. But that might come sooner than I think if I keep procrastinating. 

Poppy's Garden. I woke up from a nap dreaming of a creative way to make a lot of circles. This included stretching out a metal tape measure while applying tape to it until it was long enough, then tracing circles using a wine cork onto the tape and cutting them out. I do not drink wine and I just ordered an Accuquilt circle die. I have some of the most interesting dreams. I changed the background colour to a crisp white and the colors now look good. I also found the rest of the purple/green/paisley fabric I bought some years ago. It will be the focus fabric. I get to add orange and turquoise. 

Macaron Mystery. I haven't actually started working on this yet. I was waiting for a few more clues before dive-bombing in. I want to do some of the cutting prep work.

Summer QAL. Jonathan told me he liked the colours in this when the blocks were on the design wall. I have yet to assemble them and add borders. 

Machine Quilting something. Anything. I finally set up the new Jazz that I bought 6 months ago.

I am considering quilting goals for 2022 already. Seriously. It has something to do with delaying and sabotaging my writing goals. It was while I was doing this that I had the impulsive idea to donate a dozen ufos. Also, I have already given brain activity to projects to take along to the Shipshewana Retreat in April. We registered back in April in faith that we could cross the border into the USA next April. We have our rooms booked.  

The cleaning lady has finally been able to come back and we are doing decluttering. 

Blessings,

Chris

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June 2021 OMG Goal

 The sky is the limit! I aim to make at least 10 pieced blocks for the 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella. My OMG goal will be to do just that and put them all up on the design wall to see where am at. 

This is what it looked like the last time I had them all up back in March. The completed blocks and the not competed blocks that were prepped for applique. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: WOOFA Challenge

May 2021 OMG Goal

My OMG goal for May was going to be to stitch for at least 15 minutes a day for the month of May. I thought that with any luck, I could have the rest of the Ella applique blocks done. But the reality is, if I intend to complete my doctorate by the end of the month, then I have to change my quilting goals mindset. 

Instead, I will set the bar really low this month. The OMG goal will be to complete just one 50th Anniversary quilt aka Ella block.  Just one. Anyone. Will I stitch at least 15 minutes a day? I hope so. But I found that too much pressure this past month. So, one block it will be. I already have June goals dancing around in my head.  

Blessings,

Chris

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March 2021 OMG Completion

 . 

I am calling it done for my March OMG. My goal was to work on The Curves for the QAL 2021. I do not have the flimsy yet but I did make up a lot of blocks. 

I put them up on the big design wall in a few different versions and asked my Sat morning group for ideas. So now, I plan to put it aside for a while and consider all the ideas. 

Another goal idea was to sew on some of the sashing strips to Ella blocks so I could put them up on the wall easier. And I did that. Most of the blocks around the outside are just prepped and some of them have some of the hand applique done. I work on these for my 15 minutes to Stitch each day. I think I missed one day this month. I had thought to start working on some of the machine pieced blocks but will leave them until June. I should have lots more time then since I am working madly trying to complete the last courses for my doctorate. So back to the books.

Here is a picture of the antique quilt I found. 

Blessings,

Chris

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15 Minutes to Stitch

This is where I am in mid-March with the 50th Anniversary aka Ella quilt blocks. A bit more than halfway. There are 22 complete and 13 in-process applique blocks. This leaves me exactly 15 more blocks to make. I try to work on a bit of hand applique every day for at least 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes a day really does make a difference to progress the project. But it takes planning and prep work to have something ready to pick up. I missed stitching one day. Well, actually, I did pick up a block and put in about 4 stitches then realized that I needed to stop and unstitch so put it down. So, really, that does not count for at least 15 minutes. 

There are 85 nine-inch blocks in the original Ella Maria Deacon Quilt from Sentimental Stitches. I am making 50 to commemorate our 50th wedding anniversary in August. It has not been too difficult to choose blocks to omit. There are quite a few repeat blocks and a few extremely challenging ones I do not want to be challenged with. 

 

Blessings,

Chris

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15 Minutes to Stitch

I used to go to a $10 Quilt Class at my local quilt shop. The class I went to met in the mornings a half hour before the store opened. It became a very popular class with 35-40 women packed in a small classroom smaller than my quilt room here at the farm. I found it a bit claustrophobic so entered the room just as the shop owner greeted the participants. I often pulled out the stool from under the cutting table and sat in the doorway. I once sat on the ledge at the back of the room but my back hurt for days after. The game became getting there first to get a front-row seat, but even then, we sat elbow to elbow and that was a bit too close for me. You could say social distancing had not yet been invented. At the end of the half-hour class, there was roll call and we had to show our completed block from the previous month in order to receive the next free block pattern and fabric. 

Going in the mornings was a bit of an accomplishment for me in those days. I started my day at 5 am by milking my cows. A quick breakfast and shower before driving into town for a waterfit class. After another quick shower, I drove the 4 minutes to the quilt shop. We were free to shop and everything was 10% off for participants. Everyone wanted the 10% off. I would not sit through the whole instructions on how to put the block together because I liked to play the game of figuring it out for myself. Then I went for groceries or other errands and eventually got home for a late lunch. So in the end, I did not start working on my newest block until, not don't be too surprised, the night before the next class a month later. So the pressure was on to complete the thing and I usually chose the more challenging block because that is more fun.

Eventually, the class was so popular that in addition to the 3 weekly classes, they opened up an evening class. Five pm on a Friday. I signed up one year and a friend joined me. We came back to the farm and cut out our blocks and talked. It was great. It was easy to sew the thing up with lots of time to spare each month.  

And why do I say all this? Because here it is nearly midnight and I have not yet done my 15 Minutes to Stitch today. It is not a big deal. It is only 15 minutes. I have learned through experience not because I listen to reason, that if I want to have some stitching to pick up throughout the day, I need to have some stitching prepared and waiting for me. I do love to prep several applique blocks at a time. Last month I prepped 6 Ella blocks. I already had another 6 or 8 partly done. Some of the blocks are on the design wall in the quilt room. I put together a small project box with thread, scissors, and a block or two. Last week I  set up my new floor lamp by my chair in the living room and started watching movies. We are watching The Dig for our Sewing at the Farm class this week. 

However, I now have a new workspace upstairs with my new laptop all set up to write. I took up a new kettle I bought last fall in anticipation of having this space and be able to make my tea and not have to go up and down the stairs because that is not fun when you have arthritis and the knees resist all the fun exercise and those stairs are bigger than the ones I have traipsed up and down for the past 49 1/2 years and there is a bathroom up there and all that sort of logic. Then what did I do? I took up another small project box to that room and it is sitting up there and not down here. Seriously. I do overthink things sometimes. And over prepare things. Somehow today I have no stitching to do by hand here or by my armchair. And we watched about 4 episodes of The Great Canadian Baking Show. It was decadent to say the least. 

Monday the newest Ella blocks will be released. There are only 4 more months of blocks in the program. I will probably print off the patterns, pick some fabrics and begin the prep work to have yet more blocks to stitch by hand for at least 15 minutes each day. In my Swiss Cheese brain, if I miss a day, it will be so easy to miss another and then forget that I was doing it at all until the next month when the new blocks are released. 

So even though I have worked on at least 4 different blocks this week, I only completed this one so far. It will sit on-point in the final layout.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch

patchwork-quilts quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  design-wall-monday- -friday-night-sew-in- needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers-  wednesday-wait-loss  myquiltinfatuation  off-wall-friday. 

wendysquiltsandmore.  can-i-get-whoop-whoop- tishnwonderland.

February 2021 OMG Goal

 I always find it a challenge to settle in on just one OMG goal. What will it be?  

What about Bright Jane? I made 5 pink blocks for RSC to add to the 7 I already had made. 

Feb's color is yellow. My quilt needs 11 blocks for that colour. 

I have been sitting here hovering near the girls doing their school work. Ellyse is so much like me Totally distractable.

Ellyse joined me and Chooky and the girls Monday night on zoom. We cut out a whole lot of green and white pieces for The Curves. It was hard work and I let her do the cranking. 

She had a paper cut on her finger and "had to" change the band-aid every 4 hours (a bit OCD maybe). She was asking if she still needed yet another new bandaid but I said no, the cut was healing up very nicely. Then I reached down into a box on the floor to pull out some papers and what do you know? I came back up with a very big bloody paper cut on the ring finger of my right hand. You know, my-push-the-needle-through-the-applique finger. Ouch. So. she put a bandaid on it. It is healing very nicely. I only changed it once when it fell off washing dishes. 

I continue to do my 15-Minutes of Stitching daily. So far I am 100%. 

This Ella block was a bit daunting. I started with back-basting the yellow centers in each corner. Then I added the red petals on either side. 

 

I forgot to take a picture of only one of the brown curlycues that frame each flower. I am doing these in 4 separate applications. I probably could have done it as one piece, but I wanted to do it the way the original maker switched hers. 

This will be my hand stitching for the next few days. 

There will yet be a cluster of flower petals at the end of each of those brown stems. 

My OMG goal for Feb has to be The Curves.  I must have all 64 units done so I can put together the required 16 blocks and complete the rest of the things by the end of the month. I plan to get Ellyse to help cut out more pieces. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: off-wall-friday.

wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

 link-party-patchwork-quilts-   tishnwonderland. 

fortheloveofgeese.

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

sugarlane-designs 

 slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. 

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  

design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers  myquiltinfatuation.

 wednesday-wait-loss-  woofap-january-party.

The Storyteller

I did the High5 Quiz online recently and it tells me I am a Storyteller. You think?  That's part of why being a writer is so exciting. I get to tell stories. Here on the blog, I tell stories about quilt blocks I make or the process of making them. I tell stories about my grandchildren. To be challenged to tell a story without words, is, for me, well, a challenge. I could post pictures but always want to be explaining things.

This is as far as I have gotten with the January RSC pinks for Bright Jane. I still have a week so I might get more made. 

The craziest thing here on the new Blogger. All my photos came up in reverse order. No problem. I will just change how I write up my story, even though I have been writing bits and pieces throughout the week. 

This is the back of one block with the back-basting. I used a regular pencil this time. I figure it will be hidden on the back under the appliques. That fabric is white, really. 

When doing the back-basting thing, you stitch the bits in layers. This is the first layer of this block. I stitched down the top part of each petal and cut a tiny notch for the curve but realized it was perfect for transitioning from the stitched part to the flat part that will be under the next petals. You will have to wait until next time to see the progress. 

I made this block a while ago but finally finished the Broderie Perse applique. Devan is claiming this block for her name. I had to convince her to wait until the quilt was done, as she was already looking for a Sharpie. You can read that story here.

Wait until you see what this block will look like. I hope my process works. I like process. That is part of why I like blogging so much of my quilting journey. I can document the process of making the blocks. I make a lot of blocks.  

And, I did get in at least 15 minutes stitching every day. Sometimes 3-4 hours.

I prepped 6 applique blocks for my 50th Aniversary Quilt aka Ella. One of the other girls in the group tucked in a scene in one of the blocks. I will see if I can find one for this center. Otherwise, there will be more 8 petal flowers inside, inside a square inside a circle with skinny petals in the corners.

I just realized that I am doing a lot of hand stitching these days. Why? Because my hands do not hurt quite as much as they were. Stopping eating so much sugar cannot possibly be the reason.

I was looking at my 50 Goals for 2021. One of them is celebrating our son-in-law's 50th birthday. We had plans and a little boy sleepover and something other than pizza with the cake, but we are in a stay-at-home lockdown this month so will have to wait until another time. You only turn 50 once. We had pizza anyway.

This the other block I completed this week. I was liking the softer colours - the creams and butter and coral and chocolate and aqua. My Sweet husband of nearly 50 years thought it was rather underwhelming. But when I put the egg yolk and cranberry together with a touch of chocolate, that the thing started looking exciting. 

My OMG goal for January was to complete 16 units for the QAL The Curves! I found the fabrics I needed and pulled out the GO cutter and the 7inch Drunkards Path die. Oops. The way the die is designed, I will be wasting a lot of fabric cutting the way I want. 

We shall see. I still have a lot more cutting to do. I did make my OMG goal for January.

 

In the meantime, the little girls decided they wanted to do some quilting. Sigh. I am so lazy sometimes. I have kept putting them off saying it was too cluttered to work here and with them and their school work, it is even more so. But Devan would not let me get away with that. So, they both started a new quilt. Five-inch quilt as you go hexagons. They are learning to use the rotary cutters. But we still have to make a bit more room for them both to work, because they have to do it at the same time. These both are Devan's blocks. Then she decided to make some pillows for her stuffies, but I would not let her use the machine because I have it set up with my sewing, so she pulled out the biggest needle in the pincushion and started stitching by hand. 

Ellyse put her's into a project box. Just like Gramma. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with:

offwallfriday. wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

 link-party-patchwork-quilts-   tishnwonderland. 

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

sugarlane-designs 

 slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. 

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  

design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers  myquiltinfatuation.

 wednesday-wait-loss-  woofap-january-party.